his own and of his kindred and of his friends, and he took also many
new arms, and came to Palencia to the King with two hundred of his
peers in arms, in festival guise; and the King went out to meet him,
and received him right well, and did him honour; and at this were all
the Counts displeased. And when the King thought it a fit season, he
spake to him and said, that Dona Ximena Gomez, the daughter of the
Count whom he had slain, had come to ask him for her husband, and would
forgive him her father's death; wherefore he besought him to think it
good to take her to be his wife, in which case he would show him great
favour. When Rodrigo heard this it pleased him well, and he said to the
King that he would do his bidding in this, and in all other things
which he might command; and the King thanked him much. And he sent for
the Bishop of Palencia, and took their vows and made them plight
themselves each to the other according as the law directs. And when
they were espoused the King did them great honour, and gave them many
noble gifts, and added to Rodrigo's lands more than he had till then
possessed: and he loved him greatly in his heart, because he saw that
he was obedient to his commands, and for all that he had heard him say.

VII. So Rodrigo departed from the King, and took his spouse with him to
the house of his mother, and gave her to his mother's keeping. And
forthwith he made a vow in her hands that he would never accompany with
her, neither in the desert nor in the inhabited place, till he had won
five battles in the field. And he besought his mother that she would
love her even as she loved him himself, and that she would do good to
her and show her great honour, for which he should ever serve her with
the better good will, his mother promised him so to do: and then he
departed from them and went out against the frontier of the Moors.

VIII. Now the history relates that King Don Ferrando contended with